A graduate of Harvard College, Dr. D'Andrea received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1983. He completed his residency in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at DFCI and Children's Hospital, Boston. Dr. D'Andrea also completed a research fellowship at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research at MIT where he cloned the receptor for erythropoietin while working in the laboratory of Harvey Lodish. Dr. D'Andrea joined the staff at DFCI in 1990. His research is focused on the molecular cause of leukemia. He also investigates the pathogenesis of Fanconi anemia, a human genetic disease characterized by bone marrow failure and AML in children.

Dr. D'Andrea is internationally known for his research in the area of DNA damage and DNA repair. He is currently the Fuller-American Cancer Society Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for DNA Damage and Repair at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. A recipient of numerous academic awards, Dr. D'Andrea is a former Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and he serves on the LLS Medical and Scientific Advisory Board. He is currently Chairman of the Career Development Selection Committee of the LLS, Chairman of the NIH Molecular and Cellular Hematology Study Section, and a member of the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors for Basic Sciences. Dr. D'Andrea is a Distinguished Clinical Investigator of the Doris Duke Charitable Trust, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also the recipient of the 2001 E. Mead Johnson Award, the highest award in Pediatric Research, and the 2012 G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research.